The mercury continued to climb. Deltans sweltered. Crops across the Central Valley were being picked or harvested and emptied fields plowed or burned off. Trucks sent up billowing clouds of dust on parched field roads as they made their way to the highways with burgeoning loads. Wavy heat danced from the ground and pavements. Strings of trucks moved along like train cars, end to end on the Interstate on their way to canneries in nearby Stockton to the south and Sacramento to the north. Diesel fumes hung in pockets in the air.
Each year, the last Sunday in July is reserved for the raucous Courtland Pear Fair. The city park, where the old high school once stood, filled with rows of tented booths. A makeshift grandstand and stage were erected. Tall shade trees dotted the park-like setting.
